Project Server technical bits

** UPDATE2:  OK so I didn't reboot before that previous note.  This has now resolved the issue.  Reboot WAS tried prior to June CU * UPDATE:  After installing June CU2011 Server Rollups (SPF & SPS+PS) I am still seeing the same issues as before.  More research to do..... Since my rig had Project Server 2010 SP1 packages installed I have seen PWA provisioning fail when creating a brand new PWA Site with clean DB names etc. Note:  This is NOT a restore scenario: Firstly I see the following, which is what I would expect: 09/19/2011 15:45:59.32 OWSTIMER.EXE (0x0C30)                   0x05C4 Project Server                 Provisioning                   6974 Information Provisioning 'zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz': Server versions: Primary 10.50.1600.1, Reporting 10.50.1600.1. 47871661-d3d4-46fa-9c73-f5faf328a37d ...

Sometime over the last couple of weeks - whilst running some BI-focused EPM Demos - I have come to realise that sometimes no manner of demo will get people interested when they just want to jump to the good stuff, the charts and graphs, the decomposition tree, indicators and traffic lights and KPI's etc etc Sometime's they just want the shiny-shiny So with this in mind I've given my blog a spring clean and a spruce up.  Time is pushed at the moment but I intend to attempt to post as much as I can over the coming months.  As ever, there will be some trouble shooting and some how-to's that I hope people can get benefit from.

The other day I was tibnkering on my new demo rig (I love SSD's) and the whole OS Drive locked up on my, causing me to hard-crash the machine. Uh-ho i thought... my VM was running at crash point... better check it over. Lo and behold, my rig was dead on reboot.  Upon review my config_db was suspect - go figure - and I had to try and get it back (as I was going to lose quite a lot of work if i didn't). So after a little trawl around I found the following.  I hope it helps someone else in the future: Run this in SQL:                alter database “Sharepoint_config” set emergency Set DB to single user mode  Run this in SQL to find the SPID for the connection to the Config_DB                 sp_who2 disconnect from SQL ensure SQL Browser service started open SQL Mgt but dont connect to the server New Query                Kill SPID#...

Timesheet solutions in project server 2010 - #1 Security black holes and foibles This is my first outing into a full blown stand-alone timesheet solution.  Yes, I’ve done the full bottom-up and top-down configurations before but never JUST timesheets. The aim of this solution is to - minimise the administrative overheads associated to running an EPM solution - minimise “Project Owner” involvement in the process and thus minimise MS Project Pro licence needs - Capture historic data (actual work and cost) - A fixed list of “activities” per project, duplicated for work performed pre project and during the project - Allow anyone to work on any project within their particular group/team/dept - provide some insightful BI and reports off the back The entry point in for this solution is the [magical] new option of automated publishing via rules, delivered as part of SP1, without which we would not be moving forward with this. Voyage of discovery: During the first t...

I thought i'd put rogether a quick post on Cube customisation, as this is something that I am constantly asked about. Now I am not an MDX expert at all, but there are some useful results you get from some pretty simple MDX expressions. Firstly, custom measures are done in the OLAP Cube Database Management section of the Project Web App Server Settings page.  Hightlight the cube you want to customise and then click Configure. Once in this section you need to scroll down to the bottom and decide which cube you want to add the measure to in the OLAP database.  Generally in most scenarios, the Portfolio Analyser cube is the best target, depending on the data you wish to interrogate.  Once the cube is selected, click Insert. S-Curves OK, so you've got a decent OLAP report (in excel, PerformancePoint Services or the like) showing data by month, but you been asked for a nice S-curve report showing Baseline, Work and Actual Work on a cumulative curve.  As with all use...

Scenario:   - You created a managed path of /projectsites against the web app that is running your PWA Site - you create the site collection for holding your Project Web Access Workspaces (so that you have your workspaces separated from your PWA Site) - However this approach is changed at the last second, and you delete the managed path from the Central Admin configuration - You then delete the site collection result: Your Site Collection will not delete.  Attempting to enumsites against the web app will result in an error reason:  the site has been orphaned in the content db fix: - Open your content db and select all from dbo.webs - look fo the title of the Site Collection you created that you wish to delete in the Title field - Copy the SiteID Guid - in the 12/Bin folder of the app server, run:   stsadm -o deletesite -force -siteid [enter the guid here] -databaseserver [database server name] -databasename -[name of your content database] This will delete the ...

updated on 10 Dec 2010 - MS1-Var-P field names were wrong.  Hope Ive got it right this time!!! - Carl updated on 13 Dec 2010 - data types and task level rollups added to field definition (shame) Problem In the Project Centre you wish to show the status of your "Gateway" events that are held as Milestones in the project plans to provide a Milestone Summary view.  However there is no out of the box solution to doing this. The Approach Firstly you need a Task Level Custom Field that links to a lookup table that defines your milestones.  For Example: Field Name = C3_Milestone Type Lookup Table = Gateways LUT List = MS1, MS2, MS3, MS4, MS5 For each milestone you want to report on in the Project Centre (MS1...5), create the following field structure: Note:   -T represents task fields, -P represents project fields - MS1 Switch-T this is the control field that identifies the relevant task that is tagged with the Gateway = MS1 value (1), Baselined (2), Complete (4), ...